This doesn't sound good. More than 70% of second generation immigrants to Spain don't feel Spanish and would rather leave to another country - probably the U.S. - according to this El Pais article.I have noticed how the Spanish word "inmigrante" sometimes seems to have a nasty connotation or feeling attached to it when it is such a normal word. Whenever anyone is talking about the immigrants it usually is in a sentence like, "Be careful down in Lavapies, there are a lot of inmigrantes there." etc.
The problem with Spain is everyone has just looked alike for too damn long. You can immediately tell if someone is "not Spanish". If you are Asian, then you are "un Chino", and it doesn't matter which country you are from.... and you definitely are not Spanish.
I guess it will just take time for them to get used to the idea that being Spanish has nothing to do with how you look. I wonder, can they get used to that idea?
3 comments:
This is another one of those statistics that is backed up by real life experience, on my part.
In 1996 I first lived in Spain, and this is something that has never changed. All the children of immigrants that I have met, and even the immigrants themselves, have not saw living in Spain as their goal.
I have known many, many of them who told me they would rather have been living somewhere else, usually the U.S., and the longer they lived in Spain, the more they felt it was time to move somewhere else.
I always assumed that they were just commiserating with me, and telling me what I wanted to hear, as an American. It's "nice" to know it wasn't just my imagination, and that it is a measurable trend.
I think it's a long ways off before they start getting that concept. The Spanish concept of nationality is very different from the American one, quite antiquated in my opinion. I experience it a lot as an American of hispanic descent. Spaniards don't see me as an American (or un "verdadero" americano) simply as an "hispano" (with the negative connotations that word has in Spain) living in the US. But at least now us non-white Americans (which by the way will be a minority in the US by 2050) can counter back using Obama. El es negro y también americano así que ¿cómo es que yo no soy americano simplemente por el hecho de no ser blanco y tener apellido español?
JC, I know exactly what you mean.
Of course I am a "typical American" because I am a white guy and they can handle that, but when I was in Spain with my friend Agapito (from Chihuahua originally) and/or with my now ex-wife (from El Salvador) some had a real problem accepting them as Americans. They were fake Americans in their eyes.
Actually, I think the people in my building must think my house is like the United Nations. I have had Americans from Mexico, El Salvador, Iran, Guatemala, Japan, China, and of course typical white people, visit the piso.
I think the people in my building are getting the point that Americans come in all colors.
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